Rob Goss's Blog, page 2

“First Fridays” Travel Writing Mentoring

“First Fridays” Travel Writing Mentoring

In 2022, I ran a bunch of online travel writing mentoring sessions, primarily to raise a little money for humanitarian efforts in the Ukraine but also to support writers at the start of their careers. It was also something to make me feel more positive and a way to do some form of community service. The uptake was much greater than expected. More than 20 people got in touch and I ended up doing 15 one-to-one Zoom sessions. I found them incredibly satisfyi...

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On Shizuoka’s Wasabi Trail

(Published in Korean Air’s June 2018 issue, http://morningcalm.koreanair.co.kr, but here in it’s slightly longer original form)

Tracing the River Abe northward out of central Shizuoka City, it’s only a 15-minute drive before urban Shizuoka is replaced by ever-heightening hills that offer glimpses at many of this part of Japan’s culinary specialties. Small mikan groves give an orange accent to the greenery. Steep, wooded slopes are punctuated by terraced rows of green-leafed tea bushes. And if...

March 11

MARCH 11

The Ginza Line was pulling out of Ueno Station when the quake hit, jolting the train to a hard stop, then vibrating it like a car revving to free its tyres from thick mud. For a moment, I thought somebody must have thrown themselves under the train, until the vibrations turned to violent shaking and the flickering of the carriage’s lights signaled that something else was happening. Down the other end of the carriage someone screamed. The turbulence began to drain faces of colour. 

I don...

March 11: A Haibun

MARCH 11
A Haibun

The Ginza Line was pulling out of Ueno Station when the quake hit, jolting the train to a hard stop, then vibrating it like a car revving to free its tyres from thick mud. For the first few moments I thought somebody must have thrown themselves under the train. Then the vibrations turned to violent shaking and the flickering of the carriage’s lights signaled that something else was happening. Down the other end of the carriage someone screamed. The turbulence began to drain f...

On Sake, Dogs and Community

With a sudden tug, Henry sends a slug of sake over my hand. Blame it on the toy poodle in the distance. Or me for trying to hold a one-cup with his lead wrapped around my drinking hand.

In fairness, it wouldn’t be a one-cup if I didn’t spill a bit. The pull-tab lids on one-cups take just enough of a yank to frequently cause a minor mishap. A damp patch on your jeans. A boozy trickle down the arm. All common place for a one-cup fan. And though a one-cup is far from quality booze, I am a fan. ...

A desk-bound day in the life of a Tokyo-based writer

A desk-bound day in the life of a Tokyo-based writer

I’ve been thinking about work styles the last few months, wondering what changes I could make to the way I’ve been scheduling my time, finding out what works (and doesn’t) for others.

For some background, I work at home and when my son was a baby and then toddler, scheduling was simple. As much as possible almost all work, except for important business trips, was planned around his schedule. Once he started school, my core work time switch...

The Sackings – A piece of flash fiction

The Sackings

Gossip had awoken the staff room from a monotony-induced slumber. A teacher had been fired. Something to do with harassing female students during class was one of the rumors doing the rounds. Another was that he’d been caught shoplifting from 7-Eleven. Neither would have represented a first at Heartful Eikaiwa, Japan’s largest chain of English conversation schools.

Since John had joined Heartful’s Kita-Senju branch in eastern Tokyo three years earlier, a succession of teacher sca...

Why I Don’t Like Anti-NaNoWriMo Snobbery

This post might well come across as grumpy. Partly, I’m blaming the weather—as I write, Tokyo is getting its first snowfall in November for 54 years, and it’s grim. Mainly, I’m blaming…well, you’ll see.

I’m talking National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, and the negativity it generates with some writers. For those who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s basically an initiative that gets people to try and write a 50,000-word novel within November. More here: http://nanowrimo.org. In places...

A Hike in the Tanzawa Range

AS DAWN APPROACHES atop Tonodake (Mount To), a chill wind whips over the exposed peak. Off to the west, Mount Fuji begins to emerge as the darkness that cups the peaks of the Tanzawa range fades to a fleeting purple hue before the rising sun changes the sky to a more familiar hazy orange.

The night before, tired from two days of hiking through 35-degree heat, I grudgingly agreed to be woken early to catch the sunrise. Right now, watching Fuji’s symmetrical peak piercing a slow-flowing mass of...